Here are some of their tips, combined with what we, at Wickedfood Cooking School, have learned over the years that we have been giving baking  classes, which we hope will help you to get the best results from your baking recipes:

• Follow the recipes exactly as written! Baking is a chemical reaction, and so any experimentation with the recipe amounts can potentially cause a recipe to fail.
• If you change an ingredient, a method, or an amount, no matter how small, then this will change the recipe from the way it was intended to turn out.
• Some baking methods in The Hummingbird Bakery cookbooks may seem unconventional to experienced bakers, but the recipes will work if followed exactly.
• Don’t rush when measuring out ingredients and following the cooking method.
• Don’t worry if a batter looks runnier or thicker than you’re used to… trust it, it will bake as it’s supposed to!
• Only use the correctly sized tin! If you put the whole batter amount into a tin that is too small, then the batter will overflow. Only ever fill the tin you have two‐thirds full.
• If you’ve filled your tins/cases and you have leftover batter, make some extra cupcakes or muffins!
• Fill cupcake cases 2/3 full! If you’re too stingy with filling them, they won’t rise nicely and they’ll overcook and be dry.
• When creaming butter and sugar together, always make sure you do this until the mixture is light and fluffy, usually at least a good 5 minutes. Otherwise your cakes will NOT rise nicely!
• Do the same for recipes that ask you to whisk together the eggs and sugar: this should result in a nice, light airy mixture, at least 5 minutes of electric whisking! Especially the cookies, otherwise they’ll be flat as pancakes.
• After adding flour to a mixture, don’t overbeat as this will overwork the flour and make the cake dense. Simply beat or stir until the flour is just incorporated.
• Get an oven thermometer that you can hook into your oven permanently. This ensures that your oven temperature is accurate and well calibrated. All ovens have hot and cool spots, get to know your oven well and use these spots creatively.
• Ovens vary greatly, so use suggested cooking times as a rough guide. First bake to about 3/4 of the suggested cooking time, and then check every 5 minutes until finished. (Never open the oven for the first half of the baking time as this may cause the cake not to rise.)
• Cakes, cupcakes and muffins are only ready when a skewer comes out clean when inserted, and they have pulled away slightly from the side of the tin. They are not automatically ready when the recommended time is up! If you take them out too soon, they will flop and sink deeply in the middle.
• The more items baking at the same time, the longer the baking time might be.
• Make sure that your baking powder and bicarbonate of soda have not passed their best before date.
• Don’t substitute self‐raising flour for plain flour – this will affect the outcome of the recipe!
• All recipes that ask for cream cheese must be made with Full Fat Cream Cheese. Other brands are too low in fat and will not work.
• Finally: if your outcomes don’t look exactly like the pictures in the book, don’t worry! These were professionally styled. As long as your goodies taste good and your friends and family enjoy them, then you’ve succeeded!

Click here for some of our delicious cake, biscuit and desert recipes.

Wickedfood Cooking School runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built Johannesburg cooking studio. Cookery classes are run in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week (subject to a minimum of 12 people). The venue is also popular for corporate events and private functions – teambuilding cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference.

Our cooking lessons are hands-on, where every person gets to participate in the preparation of the dishes. They are also a lot of fun where you not only learn new skills, but get to meet people with similar interests. For corporate groups and team building cooking classes these events are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.

A:  A caper is the pickled bud of the Capparis spinosa, or caper bush. It grows in almost all the Mediterranean countries.

Capers are categorized and sold by their size, with the smallest sizes being the most desirable.

If the caper bud is not picked, it flowers and produces a fruit called a caper berry. The fruit can be pickled and then served as a mezze, or in salads. It can replace olives in some recipes. If your recipe requires heating or cooking, you could use caper berries rather than capers, as after boiling, caper berries retain more flavor.

The Greeks make good use of the caper’s leaves. They are pickled or boiled and preserved in jars with brine like caper buds. Caper leaves are excellent in salads and in fish dishes. Dried caper leaves are also used as a substitute for rennet in the manufacturing of high quality cheese.

According to ayurvedic texts, caper berries are useful in reducing the symptoms of rheumatism, stimulate the liver and relieve flatulence.

Unripe nasturtium seeds can be substituted for capers; they have a very similar texture and flavour when pickled.

Click here for a podcast on growing capers.

See Wickedfood Cooking School’s delicious recipe for Chicken breasts with Caper Sauce

Wickedfood Cooking School runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built Johannesburg cooking studio. Cookery classes are run in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week (subject to a minimum of 12 people). The venue is also popular for corporate events and private functions – teambuilding cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference.

Our cooking lessons are hands-on, where every person gets to participate in the preparation of the dishes. They are also a lot of fun where you not only learn new skills, but get to meet people with similar interests. For corporate groups and team building cooking classes these events are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.

A: Chicken livers are delicious, simply pan-fried with a bit of butter and garlic.  The secret is not to overcook them.  They should still be slightly pink in the middle.  In our Portuguese cooking class at Wickedfood cooking school, our students cook the following dish, with a spicy peri-peri sauce. It makes a delicious starter.

500g chicken livers

2T olive oil

2T butter

1 large onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

3-6 chillies (according to taste)

1t salt

¹/2t cumin

2t paprika

1 bay leaf

1t chicken stock

±²/3 cup white wine

1 loaf crusty Portuguese bread

1. Trim the livers of any fat, and cut in into ±2cm peices.
2. Heat the butter and oil in a pan and fry onions, garlic, chillies and spices until the onions are soft.
3. Add livers and cook until just brown, stirring gently.
4. Add bay leaf, chicken stock and wine. Simmer over low heat for 5-8 minutes. Serve immediately with crusty bread.

Serves 6

Wickedfood Cooking School runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built Johannesburg cooking studio. Cookery classes are run in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week (subject to a minimum of 12 people). The venue is also popular for corporate events and private functions – teambuilding cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference.

Our cooking lessons are hands-on, where every person gets to participate in the preparation of the dishes. They are also a lot of fun where you not only learn new skills, but get to meet people with similar interests. For corporate groups and team building cooking classes these events are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.

Slow Food Johannesburg will again participate by showcasing some of Gauteng’s most interesting producers, carefully selected in co-ordination with the Cheese Gourmet in Linden (cnr 3rd Ave/7th St) from 3-7pm on Friday 10th December. Brian and Jo, & Slow Food Johannesburg have chosen around 20 of the most promising local producers in and around Gauteng to showcase their products. You will have the chance to talk to them as well as sample and buy products.

What is Different this Year?

In keeping with how things are done at the Salone del Gusto in Turin, we have arranged to have the following activities and tastings:

• Interactive taste experience at the Slow Food stand;
• Product tastings with producers;
• Slow Food talks;
• 20 minute walk-abouts showcasing personal highlights;
• Audiovisual corner;
• Terra Madre & Salone Del Gusto exhibition;
• Evening snacks & dinner from Cheese Cafe including their Italian experiences from their trip to the Salone: Polenta & Cheese fondue, Cheese & Honey and more.

Who is There?

• Goat Peter – goats milk cheeses;
• Pepe Charlot – New french style goats cheese producer;
• Wickedfood Earth – Valley pickles & preserves;
• Hayden – Biodynamic raspberry jams;
• Jakhalskos – Nougat;
• Rassie – Comb Honey;
• Caroline – Raw honey & Mead;
• Pam – Midlands homecured bacon;
• Braeside Butchery – grass fed meats ;
• Boo Prince – Dehydrated fruits and vegetables;
• Bean There – Fair Trade Coffee;
• Sugarbush bakery – Crispbreads & oatcakes;
• Not Bread Alone – Breads and pastries;
• Wine Tasting – TBA;
• Slow Food – Taste Workshop & seasonal veg display;
• Cheese Gourmet Selection – Green Goose Cheese, Weltevreden Figs, Rosehope preserves and Rusks.

What is Terra Madre?

The worldwide Terra Madre network is working to create an alternative model of food production and consumption, in line with Slow Food’s philosophy of good, clean and fair: good for our palate, clean for humans, animals and the environment, and fair for producers and consumers. It unites food communities, cooks, academics and youth from 160 countries who share a vision for food production rooted in local economies and with respect for the environment, traditional knowledge, biological diversity and taste. Whether it is creating school gardens or producing honey, safeguarding indigenous food varieties or creating new local markets, the daily work of the network’s small-scale farmers, fishers, breeders and artisan producers, as well as cooks, educators and youth are political acts for a better food future.

A: Blue cheese sauce is not only very easy to make, it is also extremely versatile.  We make a version of it in our Pasta cooking class at Wickedfood Cooking School. Apart  from serving on steak, it is also delicious with pork chops, over baked potato, as a filling for crepes, or a classic gnocchi sauce.  Toss it with some quick fried chicken fillets strips as a sauce for pasta.

1/4 cup butter
6 spring onions, finely chopped
1T sweet sherry or port
1t Worcestershire sauce
150g blue cheese, crumbled
1/2 cup double cream
Pepper to taste

A: One of the best ways to cook a whole fish cooked on the bone along with hearty accompaniments. This recipe, inspired from Saveur, is a Portuguese-style preparation where the fish is stuffed with herbs and cooked in foil with sausage, potatoes, clams, olives, and fennel. Take the fish to the table still enclosed in its shiny wrapper, then slash it open to serve. Any white fleshed fish will work for this dish including hake, cob, cape salmon and reds. For more on cooking whole fish, join the Wickedfood Cooking School seafood cooking class, where you will learn the secrets of cooking seafood with confidence on kettlebraais and gas barbecues.

1 large bulb fennel
Salt, to taste
500g baby potatoes, halved lengthwise
4T extra-virgin olive oil
±300g chorizo , cut into 1cm-thick slices
±1,5kg whole cleaned fish
1 lemon, sliced into 1cm-thick half moons
Ground black pepper, to taste
10 sprigs thyme
10 sprigs parsley
±250g mixed olives, pitted
±12 small clams
1⁄2 cup white wine
Zest of 1 orange

1. Trim and discard stalks from fennel; reserve 10 wispy fronds. Halve fennel bulb lengthwise; slice into 1cm-thick wedges.
2. Bring 2L salted water to a boil in a large pot. Blanch fennel for 4 minutes; drain and set aside.
3. Add potatoes to boiling water; reduce heat to medium; simmer until tender, ±15 minutes. Drain potatoes; set aside.
4. Heat 2T oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add sausage; cook until browned, ±5 minutes. Set aside.
5. Heat oven to 220˚C.
6. Cut 4 angled slits on each side of fish, to the bone. Put a lemon slice into each slit. Line a baking sheet with a sheet of heavy-duty foil. Transfer fish to foil. Rub with oil; season with salt and pepper. Stuff the cavity with remaining lemon, thyme sprigs, and parsley. Arrange fennel, potatoes, sausages, olives, and clams around fish; sprinkle with remaining thyme. Drizzle with wine. Put another piece of foil over the top. Crimp edges together to form a packet.
7. Roast for 35–40 minutes. Cut into foil; carefully pull back edges. Sprinkle with zest, remaining oil, and fennel fronds.

SERVES 6

Wickedfood Cooking School

Sunninghill – (011) 234-3252 sunninghill@wickedfood.co.za

Runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built cooking studios. Classes are run in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week (subject to a minimum of 12 people). The venue is also popular for corporate events and private functions – team building cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference.

Our classes are hands-on, where every person gets to participate in the preparation of the dishes. They are also a lot of fun where you not only learn new skills, but get to meet people with similar interests. For corporate groups and teambuilding cooking classes these events are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.

Blend the flesh into smooth, thick pumpkin soups, finished with a swirl of cream – a small pumpkin can provide a satisfying meal for one. For a pot-luck broth that hits the spot, roughly chop and boil equal quantities of pumpkin, potatoes and sweet potatoes in stock, along with one onion, a tomato, an ear of sweetcorn and a bunch of fresh coriander. When the vegetables are tender, chop them more finely to create a delicious, chunky pumpkin soup.

Pumpkin creme brulee

Stir meltingly sweet cubes of fried pumpkin into risottos or curries, offsetting the flavours with fragrant herbs such as sage or thyme, or warming spices such as ginger. Alternatively, serve pumpkin stuffed into pasta, pasties or gnocchi, or use it to beef up warm salads.

Sweet dishes need not be limited to pumpkin pie. Stir puréed pumpkin into a cheesecake filling for a less sickly take on this decadent dessert. Or try making pumpkin halva – the nutty flavour of the pumpkin flesh blends well with the other nuts and seeds. Roasted pumpkin seeds are great on their own as snacks and can be incorporated into flapjacks and biscuits, or used to garnish tarts and cakes.

Click here for some delicious pumpkin recipes.

Wickedfood Cooking School

Sunninghill – (011) 234-3252 sunninghill@wickedfood.co.za

Runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built cooking studios. Classes are run in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week (subject to a minimum of 12 people). The venue is also popular for corporate events and private functions – team building cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference.

Our classes are hands-on, where every person gets to participate in the preparation of the dishes. They are also a lot of fun where you not only learn new skills, but get to meet people with similar interests. For corporate groups and teambuilding cooking classes these events are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.

A: Canola oil (or rapeseed oil) contains both omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids. Canola oil’s proponents claim that it is one of the most heart-healthy oils and has been reported to reduce cholesterol levels, lower serum tryglyceride levels, and keep platelets from sticking together. However, only very long chain omega-3 fatty acids have been shown to improve cholesterol levels, and these are absent from rapeseed oil, so these claims should be viewed with suspicion unless or until further evidence of their activity becomes apparent.

Cold-pressed rapeseed oil contains about 95 % of unsaturated fatty acids of which about 30 % are essential fatty acids, linoleic and alfa-linolenic acid. Cold-pressed rapeseed oil contains about 60 % monounsaturated fatty acids which were shown to decrease the risk of breast cancer by 45 % in a Swedish research. This study was made in the Karolinska Institute and over 60 000 women participated. Cold-pressed rapeseed oil also contains plenty of vitamin E (30 mg/ 100g). A table spoon of rapeseed oil will give you about half of the recommended daily intake of vitamin E.

Rapeseed oil is a good choice for cooking with as it does not degrade when heated to high temperatures.

Grape seed oil is a vegetable oil pressed from the seeds of various varieties of  grapes, an abundant by-product of winemaking. Grape seed oil is used for salad dressings, marinades, deep frying, flavored oils, baking, massage oil, sunburn repair lotion, hair products, body hygiene creams, lip balm and hand creams. Most grape seed oil is produced in Italy,

Grape seed oil has a relatively high smoke point, approximately 216 °C, so it can be safely used to cook at high temperature. In addition to its high smoking point, grape seed oil has other positive attributes in relation to cooking. It has a clean, light taste that has been described as ‘nutty’.

Origin

The source of this phrase is often said to be the fact that the best cuts of meat on a pig come from the back and upper leg and that the wealthy ate cuts from ‘high on the hog’, while the paupers ate belly pork and trotters. The imagery of lords and ladies feasting on fine meats, done to a turn, at Olde Englyshe banquets is easy to bring to mind and this seems to be the right context for the phrase to have been coined in. However, as far as the source of this expression goes, our imagination needs to leap forward a few centuries.
None of the variants of the phrase ‘living (or eating) high on (or off) the hog’ is to be found in any of the works of Chaucer, Shakespeare or the like. In fact, they aren’t found in print in any form until the 20th century, and then in the USA rather than England.
‘High’ has been in used in the UK with the meaning ‘impressive; superlative; exalted’ since the 17th century and in the USA since the early 19th century. For example, this from Samuel Pepys Diary or, as he liked to call it, Samuel Pepys’ Memoirs – Comprising his Diary, in the entry for 29th July 1667:
“Where it seems people do drink high.”
The word alluded to people’s status and is the source of the terms ‘high-life’ (18th century), ‘high-table’ (15th century) and even ‘high-heaven’ (9th century).
The idea that ‘living high on the hog’ initially meant ‘living the high life’ and eating pork, rather than literally ‘eating meat from high on the pig’, seems plausible but is dealt a blow by the following citation. This is the earliest printed form of the phrase that I have come across – from the New York Times, March 1920:

Southern laborers who are “eating too high up on the hog” (pork chops and ham) and American housewives who “eat too far back on the beef” (porterhouse and round steak) are to blame for the continued high cost of living, the American Institute of Meat Packers announced today.

‘High off the hog’ has a similar pedigree, i.e. mid 20th century USA. For example, the San Francisco paper the Call-Bulletin, May 1946:

I have to do my shopping in the black market because we can’t eat as high off the hog as Roosevelt and Ickes and Joe Davis and all those millionaire friends of the common man.

Why, when people had eaten pork for millennia, did the phrase not originate before the 20th century, is a difficult question to answer. Nevertheless, ‘high on the hog’ appears to have been derived, in the USA, as a reference to the cuts of meat on pigs. The question of why the clunky idiom ‘eating too far back on the beef’ didn’t quite catch on with the public is a little easier to resolve.

A: Mango Atchar consists of shredded green mangoes, mixed with spices, left to stand from a couple of hours, to a few days in order to become soft and tender. It is then blended with oil.

1kg unripe mangoes
3t salt

1t coriander seeds
1t  cumin seeds
1t tablespoon mustard seeds
1t tablespoon ground garlic
2T to 4T chilli powde

1. Wash the mangoes and wipe dry. Cut into 1cm blocks.
2. Mix the salt into the mangoes and allow to stand for about 2 hours.
3. Fry  the seeds in 1/2 cup of the oil until they are light brown.
4. Remove from the oil and grind to a smooth paste. Set aside.
5. Put the rest of the oil in a saucepan and heat well. Add all the ground spices and stir for 1 minute. Add the mangoes.
6. Stir together over the heat very briefly and remove.
7. Place in sterilized jars and seal.
8. Use after 2 weeks.

Wickedfood Cooking School

Sunninghill – (011) 234-3252 sunninghill@wickedfood.co.za

Runs cooking classes throughout the year at its purpose-built cooking studios. Classes are run in the mornings and evenings 7 days a week (subject to a minimum of 12 people). The venue is also popular for corporate events and private functions – team building cooking classes, birthdays, kitchen teas, and dinner parties with a difference.

Our classes are hands-on, where every person gets to participate in the preparation of the dishes. They are also a lot of fun where you not only learn new skills, but get to meet people with similar interests. For corporate groups and teambuilding cooking classes these events are a novel way of creating staff interaction or entertaining clients.